


Over a Silent Sea

by meggannn



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-17
Updated: 2012-06-17
Packaged: 2017-11-07 22:37:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meggannn/pseuds/meggannn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The earth, if Lin were asked to describe it, sounds like breathing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over a Silent Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for episode 10.

The earth, if she were asked to describe it, sounds like breathing.

Her mother would have said it sounded deep, guttural and firm to the core, but Lin thinks it changes. Sometimes it's light, sometimes it's heavy. Sometimes it has too much to say at once for her to understand. Other times there's not enough for what she needs.

And sometimes the earth has very little to say, like a heartbeat or a tender emotion, so quiet she would barely know it's there. Her mother would always listen anyway, drinking the sounds, the noise, the breathing in like wine, but Lin is busy. Lin lives in a faster, modern world. Lin could not always go barefoot. Lin does not always have the time.

She's starting to regret it, but there's no time anymore. All she knows is that it wasn't enough. But maybe that's all right, because it never would be. There would always be more to hear. Lin knows that no matter how quiet or loud it may seem, underneath everything the earth says something in a hum, always, a low and steady rumble, like a voice from nature itself. Her mother had spent years trying to decipher its messages, but it is too much, always, for one person to understand. Lin can't make it out, either. But she hopes the spirits know she has tried.

She'll remember how it could feel like, of course, but it won't be enough. And then she'll remember remembering, if just for a little while, at least until the memory of the sensation will leave her, too.

But she'll do it for Tenzin, for Pema, for the kids, for Korra, for Aang. Her mother would understand. She's doing it to save the city and the last airbenders in the world. She'll live. She'll have to.

It is enough.

Amon's thumb comes down. She closes her eyes, concentrating, listens to the breathing and the echos -- and the earth goes  _beatbeatbeat_ , skips, and then stops altogether -- before there's a single, throbbing moment, and her ears fall silent.

There's the sound of falling, the sound of vertigo. The sound of her own inhaling, exhaling, disconnected and uneven, and when she hits the ground, she can't  _stand_  the sound of herself alone.

She listens, she listens so hard, and she never hears it, she doesn't understand. There is nothing there.

Lin will holds her breath too, steady, and lets her heart fall quiet.


End file.
